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​Welcome to the online GNRHS Archives. Here you will find historic documents and photos on a wide range of Great Northern Railway subjects, available via the links on the left side. Please also check the Announcements section below. Or try our new research site here​, a work in progress with new collections added regularly. If you're looking for NPRHA research materials, please click here​.

Providing online access to information from the extensive GNRHS Archives is a work in progress. Researchers are encouraged to send inquires to our Archives staff at the Jackson Street Roundhouse in St. Paul and the Pacific Northwest Railroad Archive in Seattle (Burien). We're also working on a new, even easier-to-use site.

The GNRHS Archives comprise hundreds of thousands of files, drawings, books, photos and physical artifacts. These items are old, often delicate, and irreplaceable, so both locations are “closed-stack libraries” and visits require an advance appointment. All serious researchers are welcome; preference is given to GNRHS members.

If you or someone you know have materials we should be preserving for prosperity? Please consider donating to the Archives.

St Paul Union Station - 1967 - Empire Builder and North Coast Limited - Matt Herson photo

St Paul Union Station 1967
New Research Site is Live 
by Bill C. Sornsin
 8/11/2024 10:01 AM

​A joint project of 5 railroad historical societies including GNRHS, you'll find "Railroad Archives Online" to be a much easier-to-use source of online historical info. Click here​ for a direct link to the GN portion - most info is currently...

 
More Photos and Indexes Online 
by Bill C. Sornsin
 11/17/2020 9:38 AM

The GNRHS Archives has posted the following new collections:

 
Barriger Railroad Library photos 
by Bill C. Sornsin
 11/17/2020 9:37 AM

We've added a link to thousands of photos posted by the John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library, featuring lineside scenes from GN, NP, SP&S, Milwaukee Road and any other railroads, dating from the 1920's thru 1950's. The GN_Cascade​Division...

 
Wade Stevenson photos now indexed! 
by System Account
 10/12/2020 9:03 PM

​The Wade Stevenson collection of GN photos was generously donated to the GNRHS Archives by the MRHA. Scanning performed by Stuart Holmquist., indexing/descriptions by Dan Bolyard. There are holes in the collection, as some locations and railroads...

 
What's New - December 24, 2015 
by System Account
 12/24/2015 3:54 PM

Dozens of new photos added to the Jim Parker collection. Mostly NP equipment, some GN. Enjoy and Merry Christmas!​

 
(More Announcements...)
 
 
 MTM Jackson Street Roundhouse web site
 NPRHA research online
 Lindsay Korst's Great Northern site
 Minnesota Historical Society - GN Records
 Great Northern Empire - Then and Now
 GN in British Columbia's Fraser Valley
 City of Vancouver (BC) Archives
 GN Mansfield Branch & Waterville Rwy Co
 Ferndale (WA) Memories by Jim Lancaster
 Big Bend Railroad History
 GN EMD Diagrams at NMRA Online Archive
 GN Freight Car photos
 Railroads of Montana
 Pullman Project Database
 Gene McKeever photos - Denver Public Library
 PNRA Map Database
 Great Northern Archive site by Jon Snyder
 Streamliner Memories
 Pullman Project Database
 Barriger National Railroad Library photos
(More Links...)

Site & Archives Credits

  • Archival, Scanning, Cataloging, Remodeling - Stu Holmquist, Larry Schrenk, John Thomas, Mike Borkan, Duane Amdahl, Jim Chinquist, Gary Wildung, Doug Complin, Bruce Barsness, Jim Dick, Ray Wozniak, Bob Kelly, Ed Ursem, John Oliver, Bill Sornsin, Jeff Otto, Jim Mattson, Peter Thompson and more...
  • Technology & Web Development - Jeff Otto, Gary Tarbox, Brian McCoy, Dean O'Neill, Bill Sornsin.
  • The Donors - too numerous to list, but without their generosity the archives would not exist.

Special Thanks - BNSF Railway and Minnesota Transportation Museum